Postponing start of school term laudable

The country has been experiencing enhanced rainfall in the last two weeks, which has seen lives lost and thousands of families displaced.

Each day, there are new reports of homes, businesses and livelihoods destroyed and also lives lost owing to floods and landslides that have hit many parts of the country.

As the rains continued pounding, some of the displaced families found themselves in schools, seeking shelter from the harsh weather conditions after they were rendered homeless.

Having seen the situation, parents called on the government to consider postponing reopening dates set for April 29, saying that the rains were likely to put the lives of learners at risk as they travel back to school.

And at the eleventh hour, the government announced that an analysis showed that learning institutions have been affected by the ongoing heavy rains.

 According to the Ministry of Education, the effects in some of the schools are so severe that it would not be good to risk the lives of learners and staff before watertight measures are put in place.

This led to postponing of the reopening date to May 6, as the government works to put in place measures to mitigate adverse effects of the rains.

This was a welcome move though it came a little too late for some families, students and schools administration who had made advanced plans for the start of the new school term.

We agree that learners had to be protected although there were still those who had overnight travels to get to their schools on time, as second term commenced.

Quite a number of those who had travelled were stranded in bus parks in major.

But after all is said and done, we just need to look at the bigger picture, which is to save lives.

Safety of learners is so paramount that we cannot afford to take risks, especially now that the Kenya Meteorological Department has said the downpour will persist for a few more days.

The government and schools administration should, however, ensure that learners who had already travelled to school are not stranded or inconvenienced for no fault of their own.

Those who are already in school should either be facilitated to go back home or ensure their safety and comfort for the one week that they will be the institutions before they are joined by the rest of the students.